Wendy Francis, a candidate for the Family First party in Australia, caused outrage after tweeting her views on same-sex marriage — she says "legitimizing" it would be like "legitimizing child abuse." Francis later retracted the tweets.
"It didn't take long for the Family First candidate's anti-gay comments to be called out by angry members of the ‘mainstream Australia' Francis assures us she speaks for. Many tweeters described her comments as ‘bigoted' and 'an embarrassment to Australia.'
'1930's Germany just called. They want their policy back,' read one of thousands of anti-Family First messages.
Francis then played the victim. 'Strange that I can be called a bigot for standing up for values that many people believe in yet others can deride my beliefs & that's ok,' the confused candidate reacted.
'I'm not hurling abuse at homosexuals. I treat every person with personal respect. But we all have the right to stand firmly on principles.' No doubt realising her homophobic slurs, which would not be tolerated in any other Australian political party except Family First, were causing a storm she is not equipped to deal with, Francis's tweets have now been erased."
Said Francis: "When I saw the amount of responses it was getting and the distress that it was causing people, I actually took the Twitter down."